Archaeology

More than 150 years after it sank off Cape Hatteras inside the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, a woolen coat discarded by a Union sailor trying to escape the doomed ship is approaching another milestone. Found inside the vessel's famous gun turret not long after it was recovered from the Atlantic in August 2002, the rumpled expanse of Navy blue cloth had to be chiseled and coaxed from the grasp of the thick marine concretion that entrapped it — a painstaking process that took archaeologists and conservators from the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary and Mariners' Museum several days. But that was only the start of a decade-long treatment program that included hundreds...

Related "Archaeology" Articles

More than 150 years after it sank off Cape Hatteras inside the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor, a woolen coat discarded by a Union sailor trying to escape the doomed ship is approaching another milestone.
Found inside the vessel's famous gun turret not...

Archaeologists probing for signs of a landmark Civil War refugee slave camp were digging against the odds this past May when they started peeling back the earth a few hundred yards from Hampton's historic port town's center.
Despite its pioneering status...

Archaeologists probing for signs of a landmark Civil War refugee slave camp were digging against the odds this past May when they started peeling back the earth a few hundred yards from this historic port town’s center.
Despite its pioneering status as...

When Fort Monroe's Directorate of Public Works conducted the first archaeological assessment of the historic Army post in 1978, it didn't see much potential for uncovering subterranean secrets.
Every sign of prehistoric habitation was believed to have...

When Fort Monroe’s Directorate of Public Works conducted the first archaeological assessment of the historic Army post in 1978, it didn’t see much potential for uncovering subterranean secrets.
Every sign of prehistoric habitation was believed to have...

WILLIAMSBURG — No one who works for Colonial Williamsburg's vast and perpetually busy collections department signs up for the job because they think it will be easy.
Starting with nearly 70,000 examples of American and British fine, decorative and...

A 19th-century stove that may have caused the devastating fire at Fairfield plantation in Gloucester County and a heavy howitzer used by the Imperial German Army during World War I — housed at a museum in Newport News and one of only 14 in existence — are...

WILLIAMSBURG — Archaeologists exploring the grounds of a College of William and Mary dormitory where a sprig of a colonial brick footing was found last year have unearthed the remains of two outbuildings believed to be part of a landmark...

Archaeologists exploring the grounds of a College of William and Mary dormitory where a sprig of a colonial brick footing was found last year have unearthed the remains of two outbuildings believed to be part of a landmark African-American school....

WILLIAMSBURG — Even in a town that archaeologists have probed countless times since 1930, few places have been dug over as many times as the landmark compound that makes up the historic colonial campus at the College of William and Mary.
But that doesn't...

Even in a town that archaeologists have probed countless times since 1930, few places have been dug over as many times as the landmark compound that makes up the historic colonial campus at the College of William and Mary.But that doesn’t mean the...

HAMPTON — Beneath the topsoil at the former Harbor Square Apartments site downtown, archaeologists say they have found remnants of city history that date to the mid-1800s.
Archaeologists spent the spring and portions of the summer digging for remnants of...

If you had to single out the richest source of Virginia Indian artifacts in the Chesapeake, you'd be wise to start looking in an unlikely direction.
Despite numerous archaeological studies of Native American sites over the years, the excavation...

SURRY — Bacon's Castle in Surry is certainly known for its intriguing gatherings, and this weekend, history repeated itself.
Preservation Virginia, the nonprofit organization charged with helping to preserve and advocate for historical places like...

When your history reaches back as far as Hampton Roads, landmark archaeological investigations are almost to be expected.
But even in the region that helped give birth to the field of historical archaeology, there are some real standouts:
Jamestown...

HAMPTON — Archaeologists searching for evidence of a landmark Civil War refugee slave camp opened up a new trench last week, adding to the unexpectedly rich catalog of nearly 200 features that have been unearthed since the downtown dig began almost a...

Archaeologists searching for evidence of a landmark Civil War refugee slave camp opened up a new trench this week, hoping to add to the unexpectedly rich catalog of nearly 200 features that have been unearthed since the downtown dig began almost a month...

Since pushing their first shovel into the ground 20 years ago, Jamestown archaeologists have rewritten the history of America's first permanent English settlement numerous times, beginning with the 1996 discovery of the landmark fort that most people...

Archaeologists searching for signs of Hampton's historic Civil War contraband slave village have turned up an unexpected but promising array of features just inches below the surface of a former low-cost housing complex.
The discoveries began emerging...

HAMPTON — Archaeologists began peeling back the earth a few hundred yards from the center of this old Virginia port town Wednesday, probing for signs of the pioneering freedmen's village where thousands of refugee slaves lived during the Civil War.
Using...